Creation M

Many of you are probably familiar with the Creation stories in the Bible.  Even so, I suggest you reread  the first three chapters of Genesis to refresh your recollection.  If you want to read more, you can find it on the Electronic Bible Page  or you may have a copy at home.

After reviewing this myth, which is important in Jewish and Christian culture, read some myths from other cultures.  Do they express the same archetypal patterns of thought?  How would you describe these archetypes?  Here is a selection:

           Ariel

Chinese, Choctaw, Comanche, Digueno, The Birth of Hawai'i, and Hindu creation myths.

Aztec
Coatlique got pregnant by an obsidian knife through which she produced moon and stars.

Chinese creation myths
Pan Gu took an ax to break forth from his confinement in a cosmic egg. When he died he became the wind, mountains, land, and rushing waters.

Cordelia
Maya, Mik'Maq, and Scandinavian creation myths.

Creation/Flood Myths of the World
Greek, Norse, American Indian, Celtic, India, Aztec, China, Maya, Assyria, Hopi, Babylonia, Romanian, African, Japan, and Egyptian.

Creation Ministries International:  Genesis and the Blackfeet
Parallels between Blackfeet myths and Genesis are taken as proof that the flood in Genesis was real (apparently extending from the Middle East to North America).  The possibility that many peoples have memories of  floods because there are floods all over the world is discounted in favor of one big flood covering the entire earth.

Creation Myths
TMC's New Age Guide's background, resources, traditional and non-traditional creation myths.

Enuma Elish
Babylonian Creation story with introduction.

The Founding Myth
The Prince Yamato myth tells the story of creation and legitimates the divine lineage of the imperial family. A glossary defines key words.

Miranda
African, Ainu, Apache, Australian Dreamtime, Aztec, Chelan creation myths from major sources for myth on the Internet.

Oberon
Hungarian, Iroquois, Judaeo-Christian, and Salish creation myths.

Sky and Earth, Breath, Life and Creation
Egyptian creation by Ramona Louise Wheeler from Walk Like An Egyptian site.

Ophelia
Shillluk (African), Sikh, Tahitian, Vodun, and Yokut creation myths.

Umbriel
Hopi, Inuit, and Japanese creation myths.

I got this list from http://ancienthistory.miningco.com/msubmyth.htm?rf=mt&COB=home:
You are welcome to consult other sources, although if your myth is not online, you should include a summary of it in your journal (otherwise, you can just give a link to the one you use.)   Or you could consult  Bullfinch's Mythology which is online.  Or, if you can find it in a library or bookstore, David Leeming's Dictionary of Creation Myths.  Check out Prometheus, Pandora and Epimetheus.  If you like children's stories with similar archetypal themes, you might try Magic Tails.  Or you could write about Calabash, A Chinese Myth of Origins.  You may also find it useful to explore some of the thousands of religious WEB sites.  A good index to these is on Yahoo.  Yahoo's Faiths and Practices page includes links to an extensive list of religious denominations and philosophies.  Note that the list includes non theistic philosophies such as atheism, agnosticism, humanism and ethical culture as well as cyberculture religions which might be particularly interesting for this course.
 

HINT:  If you need some ideas in thinking about these myths, you might look creation myths up in an Encyclopedia.  Or, if all else fails, check out my page on numerical archetypes in literary works.  But it would be more interesting to see what the passage inspires in your own mind before looking at my thoughts.